Mike Sekowsky

Mike Sekowsky (born November 19, 1923 , † March 30, 1989 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American cartoonist and author.

Life and work

Sekowsky began working as a full-time comic artist in 1941. He delivered his first work as a draftsman of humorous cartoons such as Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal for the Timely Comics publishing company in New York City. This was followed by engagements as a draftsman for series such as All Winners Comics , Daring Comics , Marvel Mystery Comics , USA Comics and Young Allies Comics, for which he put characters like Captain America or the Sub-Mariner in the picture.

In the 1940s and 1950s he worked as a draftsman of comic stories in a wide variety of genres: from Western comics ( Apache Kid , Black Rider and Kid Colt for Atlas Comics, Gunsmoke and Buffalo Bill Jr. for Dell Comics), romantic comics (for Crestwood, Nedor, St. John Publications and Quality Comics), jungle stories ( Ramar of the Jungle for Charlton Comics), and war comics ( GI Joe for Ziff-Davis).

In 1952 the publisher Julius Schwartz brought Sekowsky to DC-Comics, where he signed an exclusive contract which he eventually extended over more than two decades. For DC, Sekowsky initially drew more romantic, western (e.g. Trigger Twins ) and science fiction comics (e.g. Strange Adventures or Adam Strange ). In 2960 he took on the drafting job for DC's bestselling series Justice League of America, which he stayed connected to for more than five years until issue # 63. In 1985 he also returned to the series as a guest artist for issue # 240. Sekowsky's main artistic partner at Justice League was author Gardner Fox, who wrote most of the stories he visualized.

In 1968, Sekowsky took over as the successor to Gil Kane as the artist for the series Metal Men . He first worked as an author for Metal Men in 1969. After hiring Metal Men, Sekowsky took over the traditional series Wonder Woman, which he was responsible for as an author and illustrator from issue # 178 up to and including issue # 198.

Some stories followed for The Brave and the Bold and Showcase series . For the latter, Sekowsky created the Jason's Quest series, which is about the adventures of a daredevil motorcyclist and which was included in issues # 88-90 from February to May 1970, and B'wana Beast , a mix of jungle and superhero comics, which was included in the issues # was included.

In the later 1970s he returned to Marvel Comics (the successor to Timely Comics), where he drew for series such as Amazing Adventures or Giant-Size Super-Villain Team Up .

Sekowsky spent the last years of his life in Los Angeles, where he worked as an employee of the animation studios of the production company Hanna-Barbera on series such as Scooby-Doo . At the same time he worked for the publisher Daerrick Gross as a freelance author and draftsman for whom he developed all kinds of ninja and skateboard comics, the completion of which Sekowsky's death in 1989 prevented.

marriage and family

Sekowsky was married twice. In the 1940s he married Joanne Latta and in October 1967 Josephine, called Pat.

Prizes and awards

Sekowsky and Gardner Fox received the 1963 Alley Award for the most popular sequel (namely for "Crisis on Earths 1 and 2" from Justice League of America # 21 and # 22).